American Prestige Unlocked: The Sino-Soviet Split Primer w/ Jeremy Friedman
Apr 14, 2025
Jeremy Friedman, a Harvard Business School professor and author of "Shadow Cold War," dives into the tumultuous Sino-Soviet split. He unpacks the early collaboration between revolutionary states and the ideological differences that drove them apart by the mid-1950s. The conversation highlights Lenin's critiques of capitalism, Soviet support for anti-colonial movements, and the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Discover how geopolitical tensions and philosophical underpinnings shaped modern history through this captivating analysis.
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Different Roots of Revolutions
- Soviet and Chinese revolutions emerged from different fundamental problems: Soviet from domestic political system struggles and China from anti-imperialist state failure.
- Using a shared Marxist framework, they discussed different revolutions that fundamentally had different roots, leading to ideological divergence.
Lenin's Imperialism Theory
- Lenin argued imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism, where capitalism turns outward for resources and markets due to internal contradictions.
- This idea blends anti-capitalism with anti-imperialism by showing imperialism as an unavoidable capitalist stage.
Soviets Back Anti-Colonial Struggles
- Soviet strategy was to support anti-colonial independence struggles even if led by non-communist forces.
- The aim was to weaken capitalist metropoles economically, provoking crisis that could lead to a communist revolution there.
